Hello there!

First of all, I'd like to thank YOU for taking the time to read the words that follow - your help and support is appreciated more than you know.

On to business: My name is Mia Verdoorn. I am a South African born-Singer/Songwriter and Music Entrepreneur currently based out of Boston, MA. I came to the United Stated to pursue my dream and music career by attending Berklee College of Music and graduated with a summa cum laude degree in Vocal Performance and Music Business. 

I am currently in the process of recording my album titled "Carry Me Home" - 5 original tracks with flavors of soul, pop, jazz and blues. This project is one very close to heart and has come a long way from the planning stages to where it stands as of now. Many experiences - good and bad - have led me to where I am today. These experiences create a platform for us musicians, and there is no greater reward than to be able to share these with those who are generous enough to lend their attention to listen. My work is only complete when I am able to reach the heart strings of those listening and make them feel something.

As a small-town girl growing up in South Africa, the thought of being able to realize my dream of becoming a successful performing and recording artist was something from another world. Being given the chance to prove myself and improve my skill was the best gift I could ever have hoped for. In many ways my career started in South Africa, as that was where the dream was born. With the completion of this project to get "Carry Me Home" recorded, produced and released in the US, my hope is to also take it back to South Africa and have it come full-circle. There where it started and travelled from is where it shall return and hopefully expand further. 

My specific goals for this project:

• Complete album "Carry Me Home" 
• Organize amazing Album Release Shows in Boston, MA and Pretoria, South Africa in 2012
• Recoup costs of recording and producing the album (in total between $7000 and $8500)
• Promote the Album and the Release shows
• Produce one (or more) professional music videos for album promotion
• Tour the US
• Develop a uniquely designed merchandise brand to be sold at every show and online

How can you help?

Thanks to the brilliance of Kickstarter and Amazon, any person (no matter from which corner of the earth) can contribute to the success of this campaign. By browsing the various reward packets (found on the right-hand column) and choosing the one that best fits you and your pocket, you can pledge the chosen amount which will get me closer to my goal. It gets even BETTER though! No money exchanges hands until the goal is completed, meaning that you don't pay anything until we have reached the goal amount in the time frame we have established. 

$7000 sounds like a lot of money to record 5 songs - is that really how much it costs??

Unfortunately the sad truth is that it most definitely costs this much, if not more. As an independent artist who is not signed to a major Record Label, I do not have a big company funding me and I have to pay everything myself. This isn't necessarily such a bad thing though - it means that I have 100% creative control of everything to do with the recording, production, promotion and distribution process. The only thing I cannot control, however, is how much you will like it once it is done - that I will leave solely up to you! Just to give you an idea, it costs an artist such as Lady Gaga or Justin Timberlake between $17000 and $19000 to record one song only! $1400 per song doesn't sound too bad now, right?